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I prefer not to have to second guess whether you meant it one way or another. Yes. Communication is hard enough as it is, without having to second guess more t
by iamcurious 11y ago
I prefer not to have to second guess whether you meant it one way or another.
Yes. Communication is hard enough as it is, without having to second guess more things.
But it opened my eyes to the complexity of even attempting to define what the word means to different groups of people.
I don't know in italian, but in spanish we don't have a word for n-er, we just have a word for the color black.
That word (negro) is syntactically similar to n-er in english, which produces lots of misunderstandings with english speakers. So again, communication is really hard.
- jakub_h 11y agoIf I'm not mistaken, it's not "similar". It's literally the same word, just like the English "hound" and the German "hund". Meanings sometimes split, but the origin is the same.
- iamcurious 11y agoIt shares the same root, but it isn't the same word. "Negro" in spanish means the color black. It might or might not be used to refer to race, just like "black" might or might not be used to refer to race. To clarify, "black" usually translates as "negro". Meanwhile, "n-er" usually translates as "negro" followed by an offensive adjective.
- jakub_h 11y agoI guess it apparently depends on what definition of the word "word" (which is quite overloaded) one uses, though. I'm not quite familiar with English linguistic terminology but I believe it's more about sharing a radix than a root.